Murder at the Cooking School: Book 7 of the Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Series (7 page)

When she got back to the castle,
Kelly left the bike near the front door, and she and Caesar walked in the front
door. “Oh, Matteo, I’m so glad you’re here. Where can I find some dog food for
Caesar?”

“It’s in the little shed
that’s in the dog run. He gets fed there,” he said, looking at his watch.
“Actually, it’s about time for the dogs to be fed.
Signora
Nardo always
fed them around 4:30, because she didn’t want them to be hungry when dinner was
served to the guests. I’ll do it right now.”

“Thank you. I think Caesar
is a little hungry after our trip to the village. I’m running late, and it’s my
turn to serve tonight, plus I have to finish up the risotto. I’ll go up to my
room and get my apron. Thanks again for helping me with the bicycle.”

A few minutes later she
walked into the kitchen where the other servers and assistants were gathered to
put the finishing touches on the evening meal. Just as the evening before, wine
was being served in the library, although the Nardos were not pouring tonight.
The wine steward had taken over that task for the duration of the cooking
class.

“Kelly, there you are. You
need to finish up the risotto. I want you to start by bringing the stock you
made earlier to a simmer. Melt the butter and add the onions. Cook them over a
low heat until they’re almost translucent and then add the mushrooms. I’ll be
back in a minute.”

Kelly did what Chef
Bianchi had told her to do. When the chef hadn’t returned after a few minutes,
Kelly looked at the directions, removed the mushrooms and added the Arborio
rice to the mixture. She continued adding the broth as needed.

Chef Bianchi has a lot
more confidence in my ability to properly cook this risotto than I do. I wonder
where she is and when she’ll be back. I can’t leave the risotto. Guess I’m
stuck with preparing it, and I hope I’m doing it right.”

A few minutes later Chef
Bianchi returned. “Sorry, I had to make a telephone call. You’ve done a very
good job, Kelly. Please continue while I check on the other students,” she said
walking around to the different preparation and cooking stations. Kelly noticed
something moving just beyond the kitchen door and saw Caesar lie down and stare
at her from across the kitchen.

I think we’ve bonded. Wish
I could take him home, but don’t think that will work. I kind of remember
reading you have to quarantine household pets that are transported to the
United States from a foreign country, and anyway, I’m not so sure Lady and
Rebel would like the competition, particularly Rebel
.

“All right students,” Chef
Bianchi said a half hour later. “You’re excused. My assistants and I will
finish up here. Please feel free to go into the library and enjoy a glass of
wine. I’d like the two servers back here at ten minutes until eight.”

Kelly took off her apron
and draped it over the stool in front of her station. She walked into the
library with the others and saw Mike talking to the wine steward. “Kelly, how
did your risotto turn out?” Mike asked.

“Actually it was a lot
easier than I thought it would be. You can tell me how I did after you have
some for dinner. I think you’re going to be very happy with the dinner from
what I saw in the kitchen. I’d like a glass of the white wine,” she said to
Domenico, the wine steward. He poured her a glass of white wine and then turned
to take the requests of the other guests.

Mike put his hand on her
elbow. “Why don’t you come out on the porch with me? The sun is setting on the
hills and the entire countryside for as far as you can see is bathed in a soft
golden light. It’s really quite beautiful.”

They walked out the glass
doors which were encased in Mediterranean pine. “Mike this is gorgeous. The
colors in the sky are going to the soft mauves and blues of early evening. What
a spectacular sight. I’m so glad you thought to bring me out here to see it.”

“Yes, it’s beautiful, but that’s
not the real reason I wanted to come out here. I found out from the chief of
police today that
Signora
Nardo was murdered. The coroner’s report
indicated she was evidently given a large dose of sleeping pills and then given
a lethal injection of a substance which evidently caused her to die instantly.
The coroner said it might take weeks to find out exactly what the substance
was, but whatever it was, it resulted in her death.”

“Oh, no! Mike, that’s
terrible. Now what?”

“Well, I felt kind of
silly telling the chief of police what you’d overheard today, but he was very
grateful as it provided him with a place to start. He said he intends to
investigate each one of the people you heard the two women talking about, and
he’s asked me to help him.”

“Mike, I biked into town
today with Caesar and found out something interesting.” She told him about her
conversation with Berto Moretti’s son.

“I’m not surprised,” Mike
said. “The chief told me that although the Nardo family is very well known in
this area and has been for centuries,
Signora
Nardo was not very
well-liked. He finds it hard to believe that Giovanni Rizzo would have had
anything to do with her. Carlo said Giovanni’s wife, Angelica Rizzo, is a
beautiful woman and loved by everyone and her husband, Giovanni, is a very
handsome man. He told me it was common knowledge that Giovanni had had many
affairs, but they’d always been with a beautiful woman, and
Signora
Nardo was definitely not beautiful.”

“You know, Mike, there’s
an afternoon excursion tomorrow to the Rizzo’s olive oil processing plant
located on their estate. I’m going to take that trip. Maybe I’ll have a chance
to meet Angelica Rizzo and find out some information about her relationship
with not only her husband, but also with
Signora
Nardo.”

“You’re on your own for
that. The chief is picking me up tomorrow morning, and I’ll be spending the
better part of the day at the police station with him. He’s very interested in
finding out if
Signor
Nardo has an alibi for last night when
Signora
Nardo was murdered, and likewise if the
Signora’s
brother, Salvadore,
has an alibi. I did find out something interesting that I don’t think you
know.”

“What? And by the way, I
think there’s a whole lot I don’t know.”

“
Signora
Nardo’s
brother, Salvadore, is married to Chef Bianchi.”

“Well, I heard the same
thing from
Signor
Moretti’s son. Do you know why she uses the name
Bianchi?”

“Evidently that was her
maiden name, and when
Signora
Nardo hired her sister-in-law to be the
chef at the cooking school, they thought it would look more professional if she
had a different name.”

“That sure fits in with
what the younger Moretti told me about her. He was not very impressed with her
credentials. In fact, he made it quite clear she doesn’t even have any
credentials, and that the only reason she was hired was because her husband was
blackmailing
Signora
Nardo about her affair with Giovanni. Evidently he
threatened to tell her husband.”

“That’s becoming more than
a coincidence, and you know how I feel about coincidences. What I don’t
understand is, if it’s true, why Giovanni would be having an affair with her,”
Mike said.

“Well, let me answer that
question with a quote from Shakespeare in Hamlet, ‘There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ In
other words, we sure don’t know everything.”

“If we’re going to solve
this murder, we better find out everything.”

“You’re absolutely right.
Mike, I’ve got to go back to the kitchen. It’s my night for serving, and I sure
don’t want to make the chef mad, even if she isn’t quite who or what she says
she is.” 

“Try not to spill
anything, and I’m looking forward to the risotto. It’s one of my favorites, and
I don’t think you’ve ever made it for me.”

“I always thought it would
be too difficult to make, but now I feel pretty good about making it. The
problem is it takes a lot of time to prepare, so it probably won’t go on the
menu at the coffee shop. See you at dinner.”

“Kelly, I think today is even more
beautiful than yesterday,” Mike said as he looked out the window. “I loved the
risotto last night. That’s a definite make it at home dish, and I was
particularly impressed you didn’t spill the soup while you were serving it. By
the way, I’ve never had chestnut soup before. It was delicious and went
perfectly with the risotto.”

“It was very good, but
that gelato made the dinner for me. It’s in my recipe packet, and I can’t wait
to try that one when we get home. Mike, I know I’m changing the subject, but do
you hear something?”

“I sure do. It sounds like
scratching at our door. Hold on; let me see what it is. Stay where you are.
I’ll take care of it.” He walked over to the door and opened it. As soon as it
was open, one hundred fifty pounds of fur bounded across the room, jumped on
the bed, and began licking Kelly.

“Good grief, Kelly! Are
you going to let Caesar stay there?” Mike asked as he laughed at the sight of
Kelly pinned to the bed with a huge dog licking her face and wagging his tail.

“I don’t think I have a
choice in the matter. Looks like Caesar has become my new best friend. Lie
down, boy, lie down.” With that command, the massive dog stretched his full
length out on the bed next to Kelly, and looked over at her with adoring eyes.

“I’ll say one thing for
him. He’s well-trained. If I’m going to have to watch another male get in bed
with you, I’m glad that at least it’s only a dog,” Mike said chuckling.

“What time is Chief Varano
picking you up today?”

“Ten this morning, so I
won’t be here for lunch. Let’s get dressed and go down to breakfast. I
desperately need some coffee.”

“Okay. Caesar, stay,”
Kelly said getting out of bed and walking into the bathroom. “Mike, give me ten
minutes, and I’ll be ready.”

Mike sighed. He knew ten
minutes to Kelly meant at least twenty-five minutes. He was right. Twenty-five
minutes later Caesar, Kelly, and Mike walked down to the dining room where the
continental breakfast was being served. When they’d finished eating, Kelly
looked at her watch and said, “I think I’ll go into the kitchen now. It doesn’t
make much sense for me to go up to the room and immediately turn around and
have to come back down for class. Good luck today. Hope you and the chief make
a lot of progress.”

“I know he’d like to. See
you, later. Enjoy the olive oil trip.”

Kelly spent the rest of
the morning helping to prepare the lunch and evening meals. Lunch was a simple
meal of spinach and ricotta dumplings with a bean puree served on crostini and
a green salad. Dinner was to be more elaborate, consisting of roasted lamb,
green beans, a grilled pepper salad, and ending with something called “Granny’s
Tart.” Kelly’s only regret was that she couldn’t be at all of the stations to
see how each dish was prepared. She was resolved to the fact she’d have to use
the recipes when she got home rather than relying on her experience of actually
preparing the dishes

“As I mentioned the first
night, we will take a field trip to a nearby farm with an olive grove and a
small boutique olive oil processing plant following lunch,” Chef Bianchi
announced at the beginning of lunch. “If you want to go, please meet me at the
hotel entrance at 2:00. We’ll return to the castle around 4:00. If you’ve never
seen how olive oil is made, I think you’ll find it interesting.”

At 2:00 Kelly joined a
small group of students at the hotel entrance. Several of the students had
preferred to spend the warm afternoon by the swimming pool. Kelly patted
Caesar’s head and told him she’d be back in two hours as she got into the van.
She sensed a hint of sadness in his eyes as she boarded.

*****

A short time later Alberto drove the
van up a lane lined with olive trees on each side as far as the eye could see.
At the end of the lane were two buildings. The one on the left was clearly the
commercial building where the olive oil was pressed. It was painted white and
in big red letters were the words, “Rizzo Olive Oil.” The one on the right was
a large stone house with purple blooming wisteria covering its sides. Heavy
wooden garage doors were on the left side of the front of the house. Next to
the garage, curving steps led up to the wooden front door. On the left side of
each of the steps brightly colored blooming flowers trailed over and down large
terra cotta vases.

That’s one of the warmest,
most welcoming homes I’ve ever seen,
Kelly thought.
If Giovanni was
having an affair with Signora Nardo, I can’t believe Signora Rizzo knew about
it. The house speaks of happiness.

The van pulled up in front
of the commercial building, and the students got out and entered the building.
The manager of the olive oil company met them at the door. “
Buongiorno
or good afternoon,” he said. Welcome to Rizzo Olive Oil. Today I will be
showing you the steps we take in making olive oil. Naturally, we have a much
larger plant in Florence where we make the majority of the olive oil we sell;
however, you will have a chance to see the process here. We begin with cleaning
the olives. All rocks and sand must be removed, or they will damage a hammer
mill like ours and will also quickly wear out the oil separator.

“Next, we will watch the
olives as they are ground into a paste which helps release the oil from them.
Then we mix the paste until small oil droplets combine into bigger ones.
Although there are other steps that are optional such as additional processing
or putting in additives, the last step is where the oil is separated from the
vegetable water and solids. I’m sure you’ve all heard the term ‘first press.’
If we were still using presses, this would be the first press, but now it’s
done with the help of a centrifuge which separates the oil, water, and the
solids separately. After the oil has been separated, it’s put into tanks or
barrels. At this facility we use barrels, but in Florence we use large
stainless steel tanks. An additional step is sometimes done where we filter the
oil. Those are the basic steps you’ll be seeing during our tour. If you have
any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me as we walk through the plant.”

Although Kelly found the
tour fascinating, she was more interested in what the mindset was of a woman
whose husband had supposedly been the lover of a woman who had just been
murdered. She wondered if
Signora
Rizzo knew about the rumors. When the
tour had ended and the manager had escorted the students into the gift shop, so
they could buy olive oil souvenirs and have some wine and crackers, she slipped
out a side door. Kelly had no idea what she was looking for, but something told
her to stay in the shadows of the olive trees, and see if she could find out
anything.

She walked towards the
rear of the house and stopped a moment to look at the view in front of her.
Olive trees covered the landscape for as far as she could see. It presented a
classic snapshot of the beauty of the Tuscany area. Looking at the back of the
house she saw a large patio that was set back from the house with steps from
the house leading down to it. The terra cotta vases she’d noticed on the front
steps of the house were repeated with vibrant flowers and color everywhere she
looked. She moved closer to the house, and when she was standing at the foot of
the steps she heard a woman’s voice coming through a nearby window and from the
pauses it sounded as if she was talking on the phone. Kelly strained to hear
what she was saying.

“Piero, she was murdered
yesterday. Does this mean I need to send funds to your Cayman account? As I recall
that was the agreement we had.” She was quiet for a few moments and then asked,
“What do you mean you’ll let me know? Either you were responsible for it or
not.” She was clearly listening to the voice on the other end of the phone.
“All right. I’ll wait for your call. Since you don’t know, I’m assuming you
weren’t personally responsible for doing it, but that someone you hired may
have murdered her, and if so, you want me to deposit the money. Is that
correct?” She listened some more to whoever was on the other end of the line
and then ended the conversation with, “I don’t know whether to thank you or
not, but if it was you or someone you hired, thank you.”

My instincts sure were
right about this. It sounds like Signora Rizzo, if that’s who was talking,
hired someone to murder Signora Nardo. Obviously, she must have known about the
affair. Now if I can just get back to the gift shop without being seen.
Heart beating rapidly, she
hurried back to the gift shop, walked in, and almost bumped into Chef Bianchi.

“I’ve been looking for
you,” Chef Bianchi said, “where have you been? It’s almost time for
Signora
Rizzo to come here. She likes to personally welcome the guests to her
property.”

“I’m sorry, I had to use
the restroom, and I noticed when we got out of the van that there was a
separate building behind the main one with restrooms. I should have told you I
was going there.”

“It’s not a problem.” She
turned away from Kelly and greeted the beautiful blond statuesque woman who was
entering the gift shop. “Angelica, thank you so much for taking the time to
come here today. My students have thoroughly enjoyed the tour, and I think many
of them are taking your olive oil home as a souvenir. Would you like to say a
few words?”

“Certainly,” the voice
Kelly had heard only a few minutes earlier say. “I want to thank you for
coming, and I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now you know what goes into the
process of making the olive oil we use so much of here in Italy and which is
now very popular all over the world. I would stay longer, but I am expecting a
very important phone call. Again, thank you for coming.” She turned and hurried
out of the building.

There is no doubt after
hearing her speak that it was Signora Rizzo who was trying to find out if the
person she’d hired to kill Signora Nardo was the one who had actually murdered
her. Wow! That means she may have been responsible for the murder, but it
certainly sounds like she didn’t get her hands dirty doing it. Wait until Mike
hears about this.